


sixteen years

by psyence



Category: West Wing
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Santos Administration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-18
Updated: 2012-08-18
Packaged: 2017-11-12 09:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/489431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyence/pseuds/psyence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joey makes an announcement, and Kenny has one too. (Future fic; Santos administration.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	sixteen years

.

 

"I've decided to run for Congress."

Joey smiled triumphantly. No one smiled back. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't because they were shocked to silence, but because they hadn't understood what she'd signed.

She turned to Kenny. He was staring at her like she'd just grown a second head. She blinked in surprise. Well, okay then. Maybe Kenny had had a momentary brain freeze and forgotten how to read sign.

"I've decided – " she began out loud, but was cut off by a flurry of signs from Kenny.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell are _you_ doing?" she shot back, furious. She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the corridor. "Excuse us," over her shoulder to the staff, knowing she'd modulated her voice badly but unable to tell if it was too loud or too soft.

"You're running for Congress?"

Joey folded her arms. "Yes."

"You gotta tell me these things, Joey!"

"I just did."

"Yeah, ten seconds ago, in front of everyone else!"

Was _this_ what this was about? Jesus everloving Christ, she didn't have time for this shit. She pulled her best sarcastic face. "I'm sorry honey, I forgot for a moment that we were married and I had to ask your permission."

"Where? Where are you running?"

"I'm from California. The California 23rd."

"Great, so I'm moving to California."

He looked so upset that she nearly felt a twinge of guilt, but seriously, was this the same man who'd been dropping hints about the Capitol and beaches and palm trees nearly every day for months now? "Kenny, are you telling me all this time you meant I should run for Senate in Ohio? Because if so I've gotta tell you your communication skills leave a lot to be desired, and for a man who makes his living off his – "

"I don't care. California, Ohio, wherever." He looked tired suddenly. "I just – it doesn't matter. Sorry."

Joey stopped herself from rolling her eyes, just. "Okay. I unreservedly apologise for not informing you an hour and ten minutes ago when I made the decision, cupcake. Now can we go back in there and tell the rest of my staff?"

Kenny rolled his head to release the tension in his neck. Despite her impatience, his anger fascinated her; so different from the mannerisms he took on when miming _her_ anger.

"Sure," he muttered.

.

After the congratulations and hugs and applause, which Joey got tired of uncharacteristically quickly, she dismissed the staff to work on the Rickman poll and sat down at her desk with her callsheet. "Kenny, we need to – "

"Who's going to run your campaign?"

She shrugged irritably. He was standing in the doorway, having resumed his best impression of a pouty schoolboy the minute the door was shut.

"Come on, someone else is going to ask pretty soon. Who's it going to be? Amin? Paula? Neil?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I'll run it myself."

"You can't. You're the candidate. You're going to be too busy kissing babies and cutting ribbons and shaking hands and making speeches. How're you going to run your campaign?"

Joey threw up her hands. "I'll find somebody! Is this still you being pissed about me not telling you first? I've got to say I could care less about your insecurity complex right now."

"Who's going to give your speeches?"

Joey stared at him. He'd never done that before. They'd argued before, but he'd never – " _I'm_ going to give my speeches."

"I meant who's going to _read_ them. Because it shouldn't be me."

"I know what you _meant_ , and don't ever – What?"

"It shouldn't be me. I'm a guy. You're running for Congress with a disability and a gender disadvantage, you don't want a guy to be your voice." Kenny sighed. "Whoever you get to run your campaign is going to say the same thing."

She didn't have time for this. She had at least seven balls to get rolling on the campaign launch by this afternoon, she had a call to make to the White House before the ticking timebomb of one of her researcher's assistant's friend's cousin's colleague got the news there first, and she still had the Rickman poll to finish. "You think I'm going to lose the election because a man is reading my speeches? You don't think it's going to matter a bit more what's _in_ my speeches?"

"I think you'll have a better chance of winning with a woman reading them, that's all."

"Who?"

He shrugged, pulled a chair and spun it towards him in preference to sitting. "Valerie?"

Joey screwed up her face. "Valerie who filled in that time you got a hundred-and-three-degree fever and couldn't see straight? She got so panicked when I was speaking at the post-election press conference that she had to breathe into a paper bag."

"So, she'll need work. But she's got an engaging tone, a good vocabulary, she's quick on her feet when she isn't freaking out and she's pretty without upstaging you."

Joey hesitated for a moment. She really had to get moving on those calls. "Spill it."

"Spill what?"

"Kenny, you didn't derail my announcement to give me advice on how to be a woman candidate."

Kenny set his mouth in a hard line, and she was pretty sure he would've jammed his hands in his pockets had he not needed them to communicate. "I can't argue with you if I'm your voice."

She was taken aback. "You're arguing with me now."

"Yeah, and suddenly you don't trust me to be your voice! Did you even realize how much of that announcement you made out loud?"

Something dawned on Joey. "Are you _quitting?_ "

"No! No, I – well yes. Yes I think I am." Kenny smiled at her, then skipped his gaze around the room. For a ridiculous moment she thought he was about to cry.

"Kenny," she said out loud.

"You remember Donna Moss, from the White House?"

Hang on, she wanted to say, we're not done with the last thing yet. Instead she flipped her hand in the universal impatient sign for _of course._

"She was Josh Lyman's assistant for eight years. I've been yours for sixteen, Joey."

He was choosing the day she decided to run for Congress to tell her he want to move on with his life? God save her some days. He'd been pushing her towards public office for months. Was this what he had meant?

"Don't you want to help me run for Congress?"

"Of course I do. That's the point. I want to help you, not – do this."

"What else did you have in mind?"

"I don't know, I – I want to argue with you. I want to tell you what I think and not have it come back and bite you in the ass when you need to make yourself heard. You had seven people in here shaking your hand and promising they'll come to California. You're telling me there's not room for one more on your campaign staff?"

"Kenny, you're not – "

"A political strategist? Like hell I am." He was getting worked up again, but there was no bitterness in this anger, more desperation. "Do you think you'd've been able to get to where you are now if I hadn't understood everything you were saying? When you quote Emmanual Kant, Joey, I'm not repeating what you just said, I'm quoting Emmanual Kant."

"That's not the same as a degree in political science."

"No. It's better."

Joey closed her eyes for a moment. "Kenny, look, can we talk about this later? I have like twenty-five things to get done before nine and it's already nearly ten. I'm sorry if my announcing has made you have a mid-life crisis."

"That's not what this is about, Joey. I was going to say this anyway. It would've been nice if you'd told me you were running first so I didn't have to dump this on you all at once, but I was going to say this anyway."

He smiled at her, tiredly, and God, had it really been sixteen years? Remind her to buy the man a drink sometime.

"Okay. Well, you've said it. Let's talk about it later. Right now I have calls to make, so if you wouldn't mind."

Kenny held her gaze a moment longer, then picked up the phone. "Who's first?"

"Josh Lyman at the White House. He's the one first said I should run."

"I remember," Kenny said, starting to place the call. "You should ask him to put in a word to President Bartlet. And to hold off antagonizing every single teacher in California until after the election. And you should make sure he doesn't try to take all the credit for you running."

"I also thought I might ask his advice about how to transition between assistant and aide."

Had Kenny had Donna Moss's complexion, Joey was sure he would've blushed. She made a grim little smile to herself. Okay. She had a Congressional race to win, and it started now.

"Hi, Otto? I have Joey Lucas for Josh."

 

.


End file.
